Knowledge Base

Mindfulness Meditation with Tara Brach – How to Play

Created: March 18, 2015

Welcome to Mindfulness Meditation by Wild Divine (PC/Mac Version)

Mindfulness is one of the key interests of our Wild Divine user community. We proudly present Mindfulness Meditation with Tara Brach, Phd. A 9-Step program that focuses on developing better mindfulness techniques and practices in your meditation practice as well as in your day-to-day life.

Besides the expert guidance provided by Tara Brach, another unique aspect of this program is the “mindfulness gauge”. During the meditations, using your Iom, sit still, avoid talking, chewing, drinking, etc. practice slow, deep regular breaths (5 counts in, 5 counts out) and watch your score increase. Each step is repayable, go back time and time again and raise your score.

When you are breathing in this program to clear your mind, the active feedback is taking your heart rate signals and interpreting them to show you how your breathing cycle can be trained to become deeper, slower and more regular. This type of “breathwork” has profound benefits to your mind and body, as well as to your mental and emotional state.

By increasing your coherence and using the heart breath (5 count in and 5 count out) to remain calm you will be increasing your mindfulness score as you meditate. This biofeedback training will help you in your daily life as your learn to react to challenges and tasks in a more calm, clear and relaxed manner.

As you do the meditations with Tara, you can breathe the heart breath (5 count in and 5 count out). This will help your heart rate fall into a resonant frequency commonly referred to as Coherence. This particular frequency is known as the strongest and most stabilizing one, and it is associated with many positive changes in the body. When you are in Coherence, you can expect to feel more positive emotions, and recover more easily and completely from stressful situations. As you perform the “heart breath” while meditating you help to train your mind and body to achieve this natural state of balance as you clear your mind.
The more you meditate withe Mindfulness Meditation the more you will become familiar and in tune with your body’s state of relaxation and your breathing cycle.

Please use this Knowledge Base article to help you get started as well as answer any questions you may have as you continue to use this powerful program.

Mindfulness Meditation will work with both the IomPE and the IomPro sensors on your Mac or Windows computer.

If you are using the IomPro sensors (white housing) you will need to use the IomDriver program. This is the same IomDriver program required for other Wild Divine software that use the IomPro sensors (green butterfly program icon – see below).

If needed, the IomDriver program can be downloaded FREE by clicking HERE.

IMPORTANT NOTES

IomPro Users – If using IomPro sensors please start the IomDriver BEFORE you launch Mindfulness Meditation to ensure proper connectivity with the IomPro sensors and the program.

IomPE Users – Please make sure you DO NOT have the IomDriver program running! It will interfere with the IomPE sensors and Mindfulness Meditation will not function properly. If you are using the IomPE sensors (green housing) no additional driver software is required.

When you initially open Mindfulness Meditation you will be presented with a menu that allows you to set various options regarding game performance and display settings. These settings allow you to customize the gameplay experience based upon your preferences as well as your system performance capabilities.

Screen Resolution

You can change the quality of the screen resolution to maximize your display’s capability or for optimal viewing. Increased screen resolution (higher values) also cause an increase requirement in processing power on your CPU and/or Graphics processor. We suggest starting at the default value of 1024×768 and adjust according to your personal requirements.

Graphics Quality

This setting controls the density and quality of the graphics during gameplay. Increased quality of graphics will also cause an increase requirement in processing power on your CPU and/or Graphics processor. We suggest starting with the default value of “Good” and adjust according to your personal requirements. If you are using an older or less powerful computer we suggest using one of the settings with the least performance impact such as “Simple”, “Fast” or “Fastest”.

“Windowed” Checkbox

If this is checked/selected, then the program will run in windowed mode. This will allow you to see other programs on your desktop as well as Mindfulness Meditation when using the application. If this is not checked/selected, Mindfulness Meditation will run in full screen mode and no other programs will be seen or accessible when using the program.

“Only show this dialog if the option key is down” Checkbox

Once you find the settings that work best for you, check this box to save them as your gameplay preferences and the configuration will no longer appear at program startup. If you want to change settings after checking this option, simply hold down the OPTION key when you start the program and this menu will appear again.

LAUNCH MENU

The Launch Menu will appear each time you open Mindfulness Meditation.

How to Play

Selecting “How to Play” links to this article.

Play

Opens the game to the beginning if never played or reset or to your last saved point in the game (see Gameplay below).

Buy Iom

Open link to Wild Divine Online Store for more information or to purchase Iom sensors.

SETTINGS

Iom Sensor Signal Indicator

As you play Mindfulness Meditation you will see an indicator that displays the quality of the Iom sensor signal. Red/Poor indicates that the Iom Sensors are not properly connected to the system/game or are not functioning properly. Green/Good indicates that sensors are connected and working properly.

If you are experiencing any issues with your sensors connecting to the program or your system, please refer to appropriate Knowledge Base article below for your sensor type:

Mindfulness Meditation has a number of user settings that will let you create a personal experience each time you use the program. These settings can be changed each time you do a session in the program. The program also stores your last setting change each time you change them. You can easily adjust the volume/balance of the music and Tara’s voice during the meditations by going to “Settings”. Settings also open each time you begin a chapter to allow you to adjust the audio. When you are done press the “Save and Continue” button to proceed.

You access the session settings by clicking in the upper right icon on the screen labeled “Settings” (see below).

GAMEPLAY

Mindfulness Meditation content consists of 10 audio chapters. As you complete each of the audio chapters it unlocks the next chapter for you. The content is structured in a progressive manner but you may feel free to return to previous chapters that are of specific interest or to increase your score.

During each meditation in which you are using Iom sensors you will see the Mindfulness Gauge (see below). During the meditations, using your Iom, sit still, avoid talking, chewing, drinking, etc. practice slow, deep regular breaths (5 counts in, 5 counts out) and watch your score increase.

The meditations can be done without using the sensors but no scoring will occur.

NOTE: You can exit the program anytime by pressing “ESC” and selecting “YES” when prompted.

Step 1 – Select Audio Chapter

Step 2 – Select Location

Step 3 – Modify Settings

Step 4 – Meditation Session

The “Mindfulness Gauge” is measuring coherence and reflects that value is the following manner:

Exceptional 85 – 100

Excellent 70 – 84

Very Good 56 – 69

Good 34 – 55

Fair 0 – 33

There will be occasional instructions during gameplay regarding breathing that may take you away from the traditional heart breath which is the best means of achieving increased levels of coherence. Think of these instances in the same way that stretching exercises are used to prepare you for physical activity rather than being the core activity. While it may have a temporary effect on your mindfulness level as measured by coherence, it is part of Tara’s and the program’s overall instruction and objectives.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION and SUPPORT

Credits

“Mindfulness Meditation – Nine Guided Practices to Awaken Presence and Open Your Heart“, performed by Tara Brach, PhD., available from www.soundstrue.com.